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The Poverty of Empiricism

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The Poverty of Empiricism Informing Science Journal Volume 8, 2005 The Poverty of Empiricism Jens Mende University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. [email protected] Abstract Many researchers – and their advisors on research method – adopt a doctrine called empiricism, which claims that researchers may only use empirical methods. This restrictive doctrine impover- ishes any academic discipline where it is dominant. The main reason is that a discipline only qualifies for the status of a science after it has progressed beyond empirical generalisations to ex- planatory theories; but although empirical methods are useful for discovering the former, they are inherently useless for creating the latter. So the empiricist doctrine retards scientific progress. Re- searchers should be aware of this danger, and research methodologists should attempt to counter it. Keywords: Empiricism, Positivism, Research Methodology, research methods, empirical re- search, theoretical research Introduction There is a world of difference between the terms ‘empirical’ and ‘empiricism’. The term ‘empiri- cal’ refers to a battery of very useful research methods. The term ‘empiricism’ refers to a restric- tive methodological doctrine which claims that researchers may only use empirical methods. The purpose of this paper is not to disparage empirical research methods, but to warn readers that the empiricist doctrine impoverishes any discipline where it is deeply entrenched (Gower, 1997, p10), and to suggest some avenues of counteraction. The subsequent sections explain why the empiricist doctrine impoverishes research. The first sec- tion shows that researchers need knowledge of various kinds of research processes and knowl- edge products, and that this knowledge is distributed over three academic disciplines: Philosophy of Science, History of Science and Research Methodology. The next three sections examine the origin and current status of the empiricist doctrine in the Philosophy of Science, and the debilitat- ing effect of empiricism on research process and product knowledge in the History of Science and in Research Methodology. The last section calls for counter-action in the form of meta-research aimed at identifying non-empirical research processes and knowledge products that could be mentioned in those three disciplines – Material published as part of this journal, either online or in print, especially in Research Methodology. is copyrighted by the publisher of Informing Science. Permission As the argument in those sections is to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the lengthy, no space is left over for de- copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial ad- tailed analysis of the impact of the vantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give empiricist doctrine on the Information the full citation on the first page. It is permissible to abstract Systems discipline, nor on any of the these works so long as credit is given. To copy in all other cases other disciplines under the umbrella of or to republish or to post on a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permission and payment of a fee. Contact Informing Science. Readers are in- [email protected] to request redistribution permission. vited to judge by themselves, from Editor: Eli Cohen The Poverty of Empiricism their personal experience, whether those disciplines are dominated by the empiricist doctrine, and whether that doctrine has impoverished them. Methodological Knowledge Research is a process of producing new knowledge. So it is a productive process similar to the productive processes of manufacturing cars, computers, software, etc. Some useful insights emerge by analysing the other productive processes and then comparing them with the research process. All productive processes require productive knowledge. For example: · in order to produce cars, people need knowledge of car production; · in order to produce computers, they need knowledge of computer production; · in order to produce software, they need knowledge of software production. Productive knowledge consists of process knowledge as well as product knowledge (see Mende, 2000 for more detail). When manufacturers establish a new factory, they have to decide what the factory is to produce, and how the factory will produce it. So they need to know what kinds of manufactured products are needed, and what kinds of processes can be used to produce them. For example, when Henry Ford decided to produce motor cars, he had to know that people need cars, and that cars can be produced on a production line. Similarly, when researchers embark on a research project, they have to decide what knowledge product to produce and how to produce it. So they too need to know what kinds of knowledge products are required and what kinds of research processes can be used (Kantorovich, 1993, p11; Singleton, Straits & Straits, 1993, p18). For example, when Ohm embarked on his famous re- search project to find the empirical law of electric current variation with voltage, he had to be aware that people need empirical laws, and that empirical laws can be produced by means of in- ductive research processes. Similarly, when Darwin embarked on his famous research project on the theory of evolution, he had to be aware that people need theories, and that theories can be es- tablished by means of deductive research processes. Therefore, by analogy with manufacturing management, researchers need knowledge of different types of research processes and knowledge products. Since this is knowledge about knowledge, it may be called ‘meta-knowledge’. For convenience of access, all our meta-knowledge should be concentrated in a single academic discipline. But that is not so. Instead, our meta-knowledge is scattered across three different disciplines, namely History of Science, Philosophy of Science and Research Methodology. History of Science is an old-established discipline, which began with the ancient Greeks (Lloyd, 1973). Today, it describes many of the knowledge products that were discovered by real-life re- searchers, and also some of the research processes that those researchers actually used. Philosophy of Science is another old-established discipline, which also began with the ancient Greeks. Today, it mainly analyses the validity of existing knowledge products, but occasionally considers the research processes too. Unfortunately, many publications in Philosophy of Science make scant reference to History of Science, and most of them ignore Research Methodology alto- gether. Research Methodology is an emerging new discipline that aims to unify many of the methodo- logical principles found in the various sciences and proto-sciences. During the latter half of the 20th century, specialised methodological branches have emerged in many of those disciplines to focus on issues of method. For example, in the natural sciences there are textbooks on experimen- 190 Mende tal techniques of physics and chemistry, and on microscope techniques in biology and geology (Furniss, Hannaford, Smith, & Tatchell, 1989; Heinrich, 1965; Sanderson, 1994). In the social proto-sciences there are textbooks on experimental psychology, sociological method, anthropo- logical research, educational research and business research (Cassell & Symon, 1994; Christen- sen, 1980; Cole, 1980; Foskett, 1965; Pelto & Pelto, 1978; Zikmund, 2003). Yet certain methods are common to many of these disciplines. “The research procedures of most academic disciplines follow the dictates of the scientific method … In many instances, only the tools of research are different. The biologist gathers data by way of the microscope, the sociologist does likewise through a questionnaire. From there on the basic procedure of each is the same: to process the data, interpret them, and reach a conclusion based on factual evidence.” (Leedy, 1989, p. vii). The new discipline of Research Methodology identifies and explains these common research pro- cedures. Unfortunately, most publications in Research Metholology make scant reference to Phi- losophy of Science and History of Science. The three disciplines are subject to the force of fashion (Lovelock, 1995, p. 204; Nagel, 1961, p. 115; Sperber, 1990). This force arises in any social group, including a community of scholars. A scholar in an academic discipline is subject to research fashions in the same way as anyone else is subject to clothing fashions, motorcar fashions, food fashions, etc. The next three sections focus on the empiricist fashion. It originated in the Philosophy of Science, where it is now dismissed with contempt; but has spread to History of Science, where it is still mildly influential, and to Re- search Methodology, where it remains dangerously dominant. Philosophy of Science The precursor of empiricism was a philosophical doctrine called positivism. This was a doctrine of neglect. It called for neglect of a particular class of knowledge products, namely theories, and especially those theories that involve un-observable first causes (Oldroyd, 1986, p. 169). Positiv- ism originated in the 18th century, when Berkeley denied the reality of theoretical objects such as the Newtonian forces of mechanics (Losee, 1993, p. 168). Positivism was subsequently dissemi- nated by two influential 19th century philosopher-scientists: the sociologist Comte, who asserted that ‘science must study only the laws of phenomena’, and the physicist Mach, who attempted
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